1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ontology system for context-aware, a method for managing the ontology system, and a recording medium storing the same; and, more particularly, to an ontology system for context-aware, which can be applied to various domains and express diverse context information, a method for managing the ontology system, and a recording medium storing the same.
2. Description of Related Art
In order to provide a user centric service in ubiquitous environment, a context-aware system is required to detect what a user wants based on the current context of a user and the context of surrounding environment thereof. The content-aware system receives information from sensors that collect diverse information, processes the received information, and provides a related service that a user wants. The context-aware system can intelligently process context information using ontology. The widely known study fields of the ontology are an extensible markup language (XML) based resource description framework (RDF), an ontology web language (OWL), a rule-markup language (Rule-ML), and a semantic web rule language (SWRL). There have been many studies in progress for providing various languages as an inference service through various rule-based inference engines. The context-aware system has following advantages through utilizing ontology. That is, context information can be shared and reused. Also, the context information can be inferred, extended, and interoperated in the context-aware system.
A context-aware technology using ontology according to the related art was introduced in Korean Patent Publication No. 2006-0066587, entitled “METHOD FOR MODELING CONTEXT INFORMATION USING RULES AND ONTOLOGY AND CONTEXT-AWARE SYSTEM” and published on Jun. 16, 2006.
The technology of the Korean Patent Publication No. 2006-0066587 relates to a method of expressing context information using a rule and ontology for preparing a base to provide context information that is required in a system for recognizing context information of surrounding environment in ubiquitous environment. The method includes steps of a) classifying real world to predetermined categories each having a common property and extracting context information notion words from the classified result; b) classifying information represented as the context information notion words into first information proper to model using ontology and second information proper to mode using a rule; c) modeling the first information classified in the step b); d) modeling the second information classified in the step b); and e) composing a rule base for managing the rule. According to the method of expressing context information using a rule and ontology and the context aware system in the Korean Patent Publication No. 2006-0066587, ontology is used to express information which is difficult to be expressed using rules, the ontology information is referred if it is required in rules. Therefore, context information can be effectively expressed while sustaining the advantages of each information expression method.
Another context-aware technology using ontology was introduced in Korean Patent Publication No. 2007-0009134, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGEMENT OF CONTEXT DATA IN UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT” and published on Jan. 18, 2007.
The technology of the Korean Patent Publication No. 2007-0009134 relates to a system and method for effectively storing and managing diverse context information to provide a context-aware service. The system includes a context information input unit for receiving context information inputted through various paths, a context information analyzing/storing unit for transforming the context information to OWL data with reference to predetermined context ontology and storing the OWL data in a relational database system, and a context information searching unit for determining the optimal service by analyzing diverse context information and searching necessary context information from the relational database system. That is, the context information management method and the system thereof for easily and effectively embodying a context-aware service by effectively managing the large amount of context information was introduced in the Korean Patent Publication No. 2007-0009134.
Furthermore, still another context-aware technology using ontology according to the related art was introduced in an article by T. Gu et. al., entitled “An Ontology Based Context Model in Intelligent Environment”, in Proc. of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems Modeling and Simulations Conference, 2004. This context-aware technology according to the related art relates to a technology for defining context-aware ontologies of various domains by forming a domain independent ontology through upper level ontology for a context-aware system.
However, the context-aware ontology technologies according to the related art including the context-aware ontology technologies in the Korean Patent Publications and the article have problems as follows. The context-aware ontology technologies according to the related art fail to describe diverse context supplementary information such as a method for generating context information. Also, it is impossible to express numerical formulas using the context-aware ontology technologies according to the related art because ontology is defined only using OWL and RDF.
Since the context-aware ontology technologies according to the related art is not independent from a domain, it is insufficient to apply the context-aware ontology technologies according to the related art to various domains such as home, a school, and a hospital. Also, it is not consider to detect a user' intention or inclination for providing a related service to a user in the context-aware ontology technologies according to the related art.
Although upper level ontology is defined to apply it to various domains in the context-aware ontology technologies introduced in the Korean Patent Publications and the article, it is insufficient to express diverse context information. Similar to the context-aware ontology technologies, it is impossible to express numerical formula and Horn-Logic. Also, it is impossible to detect the user's intention and inclination.
Furthermore, it is required to newly define a classification system according to a corresponding domain whenever a context-aware system is embodied, and the context-aware system is embodied according to the classification system in the context-aware ontology technologies according to the related art.